


a hit between the eyes

by hadrons_collide



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel 616, The Last of Us
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Gen, Gun Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s), The Last of Us AU, the last of us spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 17:33:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1752959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hadrons_collide/pseuds/hadrons_collide
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha glances over at Kate and lowers her voice. "What the hell does AIM want with this girl, Clint? I haven't seen them since-" She stops when she sees the look on Clint's face. "It's been years, Clint. Why are they all of a sudden after this girl?"</p>
<p><i>The Last of Us</i> AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	a hit between the eyes

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILER-RELATED NOTE: I'm about 2/3 through with the game at this point in time - Joel and Ellie just arrived at Eastern Colorado University - so please please PLEASE don't spoil me past that in comments or wherever!!!! If everything I've written is completely ruined by the ending of the game, I don't wanna know. Seriously. Don't tell me.
> 
> SPOILER-RELATED NOTE 2: This fic will contain spoilers for the plot of the game and as I continue to update and play it probably will continue to be spoilery. Please read at your discretion if you haven't played the game!!! (and if that applies to you, please play it, it's amazing!)
> 
>  
> 
> I went into the game knowing that Joel is voiced by the same guy who voices Clint in _Avengers Assemble_ , but it didn't strike me how much this whole plot could be Kate & Clint until Joel was teaching Ellie how to shoot. As someone who doesn't ship Clint/Kate personally, I realized that Joel & Ellie's relationship was basically Clint & Kate's (with slight age skewing) and I knew I had to write this. Natasha is basically Tess, and SHIELD are sorta the Fireflies. Vaguely. The scenario is essentially the same but with superheroes. And Kate is just Kate. Not a Young Avenger or Lady Hawkman or anything. And AIM is there to ruin everything, as they always do.
> 
> Chapter 1 of this coincides with the first sections of "The Outskirts" chapter in the game, so spoilers through there.
> 
> (title from broods' "coattails")

Natasha sinks to the floor of the abandoned house as soon as Clint shuts the door and bars it shut. "Don't think they saw us come in here. We can catch our breath." He turns to Kate, who's already rummaging through drawers on the other side of the room. "See if there's anything in here we can use- ammo, supplies, water, whatever. You're probably gonna get us killed so at least make yourself useful until then."

"Aye aye, Captain," Kate says sarcastically.

He turns his attention back to Natasha, who's popping her shoulder back into place. "Don't worry, I'm fine," she says when she sees the concern on Clint's face. Natasha glances over at Kate and lowers her voice. "What the hell does AIM want with this girl, Clint? I haven't seen them since-" She stops when she sees the look on Clint's face. "It's been years, Clint. Why are they all of a sudden after this girl?"

Kate's humming to herself as she opens drawers and cabinets, occasionally stuffing something into her bag. Clint kneels down to her level and wipes his brow. "Not sure. Hill just said get her out of the city to Coulson. Figured it was an easy enough job, but if AIM's involved..."

There's a crash of glass. "Shit, shit, shit," Kate mutters. Clint raises his head to see her blushing. "I'm fine! Just knocked a bottle off the counter."

He sighs. "Look, just don't touch anything else, all right Katie? Take a breather, you two, I'll check upstairs."

Clint climbs the stairs cautiously, checking around every door frame before going in. As he sifts through a pile of ammo in a desk drawer, he can hear the damn AIM patrols driving outside, but they're not paying attention to the house. "Clint, you dummy," he mutters to himself. "What have you gotten yourself into this time?"

 

When the spores first started affecting people, Clint stuck with SHIELD in Manhattan, figuring whatever was happening couldn't touch him in a skyscraper full of superheroes and scientists. Then the fungus started affecting people inside SHIELD- the mutants didn't turn at all, it just straight up killed them. Infected got into Xavier's school and wiped them out in two days flat. That was the first and only time he'd ever seen Maria Hill cry.

People with powers survived a few days longer on average than those who didn't- Cap lasted six months before he started turning, before he pleaded with Natasha to shoot him so he couldn't turn anyone else- but their numbers started shrinking quickly. No more running out into the street to save people no matter what. You survived if you were careful and selfish, two qualities Clint and Natasha prided themselves on. It's why they're the only Avengers left, eight years later.

 

"You can help by staying out of the way and not getting killed," Natasha says.

"Bullshit," Kate retorts. "I'd help more with a weapon and you know it."

They've had this argument at least five times in the two days Kate's been with them. The kid claims she's used a bow before, even claims she could be as good as Clint if they'd just let her practice, but he's not buying it.

"Quiet, both of you," Clint says, ducking down behind an abandoned car. "I hear Infected."

"Fuck," both Kate and Natasha say under their breath. Natasha almost smiles at her, but she's too busy reloading her pistol.

"Use the bricks back there to distract them," he tells Kate, drawing his rifle.

"Or I could use your revolver-"

"Bricks!" he says with a glare. "Not giving a twelve year old a revolver, no fucking way."

"I'm sixteen, actually," she replies, but Clint's not paying attention anymore. There's a Clicker with the group of Infected, and he aims carefully. He breathes in and fires, and the bullet goes straight through the Clicker's head. It shudders twice before falling over, dead. 

That draws the attention of the Runners, though, and it takes almost all of Clint's bullets to keep them off Kate and Natasha. He's able to strangle one that Kate hits with a brick, and she shoots him a thumbs up afterwards. Clint just rolls his eyes and waves her over when he determines the coast is clear.

 

"I thought the Avengers died out years ago," Kate says as they make their way towards the Turnpike. Natasha had vetoed the subways - apparently the Infected were taking it over - so roads were their only option. "So why are you guys still here?"

Clint turns to Natasha, hoping she'll answer, but she shakes her head. "I holed up at SHIELD for the first three years," he starts. "Bobbi, my... my wife, she was a biochemist working with Dr. Banner. I ran missions for food, supplies, helping people... she worked on a cure."

"Wait, hold on, you have a wife?" Kate asks.

Clint glares at her. "I did, until AIM killed her. They came busting in one day, wanted Banner and all his research. Fury got him out as soon as he heard AIM was in the building, nobody's heard from them since. AIM was pissed, though, and they-"

He chokes up and Natasha's hand is on his arm almost instantly. "Nobody had time to draw a weapon. It was awful. So Clint left and locked himself in an abandoned building with his dog until Maria and I found him a little more than a year ago."

"Shit," Kate mutters. "Sorry, man," she says, reaching for Clint's other arm, but he pulls away from her and Natasha.

"Let's keep moving," he says. "Get you to Coulson before AIM kills us, too."

 

Except Coulson's not at the rendezvous point. Or any of the band of people who were supposed to meet them.

"Maybe Phil's just running late," Kate says, looking at the door of the abandoned building they're in as if he's just going to walk up and apologize for being behind schedule.

"Not Coulson," Natasha says as she sweeps the ground floor, looking for anything that might explain their absence.

Clint's the one that finds it, and he swears under his breath. "Bullet casings over here," he says, fingering his pistol in the holster. "You're the expert, Nat, these ours?"

"Maybe," she says, eyes on the ground. "But these over here definitely aren't."

"Fuck." He draws the gun and glances at the door. "They know we're coming, then."

"AIM?" Kate asks.

Clint glares at her. "Yeah, AIM. Thanks for that."

Kate starts to say something but Natasha snaps at them. "Shut up, both of you."

"Yeah, c'mon, kid, we're bringing you back to Hill."

"Clint!" Natasha snaps again. "There has to be a reason Hill needed her out of the city. AIM's probably at SHIELD again, for all we know." Clint swears under his breath again and Natasha continues, turning to Kate. "So why does SHIELD want you out of the city, Kate?"

She bites her lip and looks at Natasha, then Clint, then back at Natasha. "Don't freak out, okay?" Kate pulls up the purple sleeve of her jacket, and when Clint sees the obvious gnawed bite marks, he points his gun at her.

"This from earlier today?" he asks, finger on the trigger. He doesn't particularly want to shoot the kid, but if she's gonna turn, he'd rather do it now than later. It wouldn't be the first time either he or Natasha had done it.

"More like a year ago," Kate replies, and Clint's arm wavers as she continues. "I was hunting outside the quarantine zone with my friend Billy. Infected came, and I fought them off, but-" She pauses, bites her lip and squeezes her eyes shut as if the memory is still painful. "Turns out Billy was a mutant. He didn't even know it until he realized he was dying, not turning, and he died in my arms an hour later. After that, I had no one and I figured I was going to turn into a crazy zombie thing. Phil found me before I put a bullet in my head."

Clint lowers his gun as Natasha goes to wrap an arm around Kate. "He said SHIELD could maybe run some tests on me, see if they could learn anything about the infection. Told me they had people who could put me out of my misery before I started to turn, but that I could help the world until then. So I figured what the hell. Spent a few hours in a lab with Agent Simmons running tests. That turned into a few days, a few weeks, and nothing. I never turned. Only thing that changed about me was I got really good at imitating Jemma's accent."

"So you're superhuman?" Clint asks.

Kate shakes her head. "Not that any of Jemma's tests could tell. My mom died before the infection started, looters shot my dad when they raided our penthouse a few months in. As far as SHIELD could tell, I'm perfectly average, other than the fact that I'm immune."

Clint pauses to think, because something about this just doesn't add up. "If you were at SHIELD this whole time, why didn't we know you were there?"

"Probably need-to-know, right Kate?" Natasha says.

Kate nods. "I only talked to Jemma and Phil and Agent Hill. Jemma said I was top security- it was like being a spy."

"So do you know where they were taking you?" Clint asks.

Kate shakes her head but Natasha cuts in. "My guess is Fury. If Simmons can't find anything in a year, Banner's the only one alive who can. And he's with Fury."

He sighs. "Except nobody knows where the hell Fury is. Not even you, and you know everything."

"No," Natasha replies. "And I know you're not going to like this, but James probably knows."

Clint rolls his eyes. "Of course James knows. Fucking Winter fucking Soldier. He knows everything there was to ever know," he says sarcastically. "Except your boyfriend disappeared, too."

Natasha glares at him. "He's in DC, at Steve's old place. And he was always close with Fury, so if anyone knows where Fury's at, it's him."

Clint grumbles under his breath. He's never been a huge fan of Bucky Barnes- nobody else should've ever carried Cap's shield, even if Steve was okay with it- but he knows deep down that Natasha's right. "We can get to DC," he says, more confident than he really is.

Kate looks back and forth between the two of them. "So... road trip?" she says, probably more cheerfully than the situation calls for.

Clint's about to respond when something crashes against the door. Judging by the amount of noise, it's Infected, not AIM, which means they won't be smart about their attack. "Out the back, both of you," he says quietly.

He draws his gun and follows Kate and Natasha out the back door. "Let's get to the Interstate as quickly as possible. And try not to get bitten."

"Didn't really work the first time, but okay," Kate mutters with a smirk. Clint just rolls his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> if you wanna talk about this (or anything) w/ me on [tumblr](http://buckykates.tumblr.com) please do!


End file.
